Assessment of HYCOM as a tool for estimating Florida's OTEC potential

Ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) uses the energy stored in the thermocline to evaporate and condense a fluid in a Rankine power cycle. A thermal energy resource assessment is conducted for waters surrounding Florida to help qualitatively assess the best locations for electrical power production by an OTEC plant in that state, using data modeled by the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM). The model's temperature predictions are then compared on a daily timescale against three years' worth of in situ temperature data collected by CTD and ADCP buoys spanning 160 km of the Atlantic coast of south Florida.